1 John chapter 4

Don’t believe every spirit. Rather, test the spirits. Love one another. Be bold at the judgment seat of Jesus Christ. [UPDATED]

TEST THE SPIRITS

VERSE 1. Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

don’t believe every spirit. Not all people are sincere. We should not be gullible. We should not accept their claims at face value.

many false prophets. The number of false prophets is “many.”

VERSE 2. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,

come in the flesh. In those days, some people were saying that Jesus Christ was only an appearance. He was a ghost, and did not have a physical body. He only seemed to be human, and his human form was an illusion.

That is called docetism.

Docetism was condemned at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.

VERSE 3. and every spirit who doesn’t confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God, and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard that it comes. Now it is in the world already.

confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. We can simply ask: “Do you believe Jesus Christ had an actual human body?”

If the answer is YES, then the person is probably a Christian.

If the answer is NO, then the person might be a docetist and not a Christian.

the spirit of the Antichrist. John the Evangelist sees the Docetists as being infested by the spirit of the Antichrist.

VERSE 4. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.

greater is he who is in you. Inside the Christian believer is Jesus Christ. Within a world person is the devil.

Jesus Christ is infinitely greater than the devil. Thus a Christian has nothing to fear from the devil, since Jesus Christ is inside them.

VERSE 5. They are of the world. Therefore they speak of the world, and the world hears them.

VERSE 6. We are of God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not of God doesn’t listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

LOVE ONE ANOTHER

VERSE 7. Beloved, let’s love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God.